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Reza Taheri
- Updated August 14, 2023
Can You Open A US Bank Account From Abroad? Yes
When I first started my e-commerce journey in 2019. I faced a lot of challenges. One of those challenges was to open a US bank account from abroad. As you know this business thing does need a bank account.
Opening a bank account without going to the US is almost impossible. As you know most US banks require you to be in person in order to open a bank account. There are some agents to do so for you but I recommend you not to do that.
I spent a lot of money from forming an LLC to getting a business bank account. At that time I did not know that there was some way to do so but spend less money.
There are two options to open a US bank account from abroad:
- Mercury banking
- Wise
First of all, you need to form a US LLC in order to open a US bank account from abroad. There are some companies that are working with the US government about forming companies for oversea business owners such as you and me. Most of them cost you a huge amount of money. That I recommend you to never do that.
One of my favorites is ITIN Application Assistance. They have fantastic service, especially their customer service. Their pricing is lower than the other, and they deliver your order on time.
I have a limited agreement with them to give us a discount for their services. If you have not formed your company yet, go with the US Company, EIN and ITIN package which is insanely cheap. You can’t find anything like this, believe me. Also they give you a discount of $50 when you use the coupon code REZA. This coupon has a limited life time. It’ll go off soon. Get your US bank account.
The other package is ITIN. It stands for Individual Tax Identification Number. It’s used for anyone who owns a company in the US. If you have already formed your company in the US, I recommend you to get your ITIN too. It will open up your way to a lot of things in addition to banking. Especially for payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal.
ITIN is a 9 digit Tax Identification Number, just similar to SSN it’s also 9 digits.
Example: XXX-XX-XXXX.
ITIN is used for US non-residents instead of SSN. If you’re asked for SSN, you can use ITIN instead. It can help you to open a US bank account from abroad too.
How to apply for an ITIN?
To Apply ITIN you have to have a US company and EIN and passport scan.
ITIN is a process that takes long, 12-14 weeks right now because of Covid, before this widespread disease it was 6-8 weeks. So by the time this video is out they could potentially start doing it in 6-8 weeks like before. If you have any questions please go visit their website or simply get in touch with them, they do have wonderful customer service.
After you form your company, you have two options for banking. One of them is Mercury and the other one is Wise. The good news is that Wise does not require ITIN as of now. At least as of today they do not ask you to add your ITIN. I don’t know if they will ask for it in the future. But the bad news is that they will only give you business bank details if you pay their fee which is around $31 or its equivalent, and you can only pay that fee with a bank card under your name or your business name which is another challenge.
Open a US bank account from abroad can be a challenging task but let me tell you my story, I first opened Mercury and then Wise account, I paid the fee via my Mercury bank card. Now I use both of them.
I encourage you to take action now. Because as time passes things get harder. That’s it guys, I hope this guide was helpful. If you have any questions, simply leave them in the comment section.
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